The detectives' stories: Faith, love and tracking serial killers

Immediately, they set up a meeting with Santa Ana and Anaheim detectives at Anaheim police headquarters. Based on cellphone pings, Santa Ana detectives fed Lomeli the specific locations, dates and times each woman had vanished.

Every time Lomeli typed in the data, Cano appeared.

And every time, detectives were left shaking their heads and blurting something to the effect of, “holy smoke!”

But Lomeli recalled something else about Cano. This week, she explained, “There’s stuff that sticks to you.”

She told the team that Cano was linked to another sex crime registrant, a 45-year-old man named Steven Gordon. The detective had never met Gordon but she knew the pair had cut off their monitoring bracelets and spent two weeks in Las Vegas in 2012. She also knew that Gordon’s ankle monitor was on the federal tracking system and wouldn’t show up on the state tracking system.

“Never in my wildest dream,” Trapp said, “did I think there were two.”

Working with information sex registrants are required to furnish, detectives quickly determined Gordon worked at an auto body shop in the area and lived in an RV.

But linking two suspects to locations where women have disappeared isn’t enough to charge someone, let alone get a conviction. Now the team, which quickly grew to include the FBI, U.S. marshals and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, worked to build not just one but two prosecutable cases.

“It’s frustrating when you know who it is and you can’t do anything,” Trapp said.

Trapp’s team set up two round-the-clock teams to follow Cano’s and Gordon’s every move. The investigators checked the license plates of RVs in the area, but none were registered to Gordon. They checked out the dumpsters in the vicinity where Gordon worked – and got a hit.

They sought search warrants for phone records, including texts. They consulted with experts in the FBI’S Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Va. They interviewed an FBI profiler on assignment in Alaska, known to be the best of the best.

After 10 days, the team had enough to seek four arrest warrants for murder.

‘AWAKE AT NIGHT’

As detectives closed in on Cano on April 11, Trapp got a chill.

She realized they were about to arrest Cano in the same Anaheim parking lot where they arrested another serial killer suspect – Itzcoatl Ocampo, who took his own life in jail after being charged with killing six people, mostly homeless men.

Anaheim police homicide detective Julissa Trapp, center, led a team of detectives who arrested two suspects and put them in jail on charges of murdering Jarrae Esteep and three other women. Pictured, from left, are detectives John "JD" Duran, Julissa Trapp, Bruce Linn and Mark Lillemoen. Also on the team but not pictured are Sgt. Joseph Faria and Detective Daniel Gonzalez. LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
By using her computer, Anaheim police Detective Laura Lomeli of the sexual assault detail was instrumental in the arrests of Steven Dean Gordon and Franc Cano, suspected in four killings. LEONARD ORTIZ , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Jodi Estepp puts on a rosary given to her by Anaheim homicide Detective Julissa Trapp. PAUL BERSEBACH , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Franc Cano, 27, was arrested in the disappearance of four women from the Orange County area. He is charged with four felony counts of special-circumstances murder and four felony counts of forcible rape, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. MEGANSLAW.CA.GOV
A collage of pictures in remembrance of Jarrae Estepp made by friends and family. COURTESY OF JODI PIER-ESTEPP
Steven Dean Gordon was arrested by Anaheim police in connection with the disappearance of four women in Orange County. MEGANSLAW.CA.GOV
By using her computer, Anaheim police Detective Laura Lomeli was instrumental in the arrests of Steven Dean Gordon and Franc Cano, suspected in the deaths of four women. LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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